How Knowledge Management is Getting Better in the AI Era

As technology advances, the way we perform tasks and the tools we rely on change. We adapt. Some take a leap of faith and adopt new technology as soon as it’s announced. Most of us wait and see what is viable or successful, and what is simply a fad. But if you wait too long, you’re going to fall behind.

CDs are obsolete because you can’t find too many devices to play them in. Cars produced in the last 7-10 years rarely have a disk drive. Macbooks abandoned that option years ago, when the iPod became popular. Eventually, you had no choice but to forget about CDs and invest devices (or more likely, phones) that store and play music.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next development that people, particularly businesses, can’t afford to ignore. The goal of AI is to provide employees across the organization access to relevant, up-to-date information. While knowledge bases exist in most businesses, the knowledge itself can be unorganized, live in multiple places, or grow stale and outdated. Managing existing information, not to mention capturing new knowledge, becomes difficult and time consuming and ultimately, a detriment to your company’s productivity.

Amplify knowledge with context

Whether you have an intranet or use a tool like Confluence, knowledge is typically dispersed in several areas, making some information inaccessible. Finding information should be an organized process, so giving employees a single access point to company information is critical. A clearly designated method to search for knowledge streamlines the search process for both the employee population and teams that strive to deliver information (which, by the way, is everyone).

The biggest knowledge based hurdle companies face is deciding whether or not knowledge is up-to-date. If your knowledge base is not organized, there maybe be multiple documents on the same topic with conflicting information, or some knowledge just grows stale. AI triggers reminders so that authors of content never neglect any knowledge they contribute. And if something changes, like your business address, AI can surface relevant information that may also need to be updated, like transportation or parking information. That’s where contextual awareness comes in.

Context matters. Without it, information is irrelevant and useless. Luckily, AI is capable of recognizing patterns, which benefits teams across an organization. Unfortunately, silos continue to exist and present many communication barriers. AI can easily keep cross-functional teams abreast of important information.

For instance, if Marketing or Demand Generation decides to tweak the lead scoring strategy within a knowledge base, the intelligence kicks in to notify Sales that content has been changed. AI enables teams to remain on the same page so there are no surprises or blockers and efficiency improves.

Lastly, intelligent knowledge bases should do more than answer common questions. The best AI-enhanced knowledge bases identify the topics an employee requests information about, then surface other relevant knowledge in the form of links or attachments. Employees do not have to prompt an agent for related information, it is simply provided in case someone needs it. AI elevates traditional bot-interfaced FAQ and serves up related content that align with employee requests.

Embrace AI, enhance your business

Knowledge bases powered by AI are essential for businesses that want to boost the organization and accessibility of information for employees. Ultimately, adopting AI keeps members of your organization informed with updated knowledge, which allows everyone to perform at their peak capacity.